Once again New Mexicans can take advantage of the state’s annual Back to School Tax Free Holiday.

The tax holiday begins at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 1 and concludes on the following Sunday at midnight.

During that time the law provides a deduction from gross receipts for retail sales of qualifying tangible personal property; in effect allowing the retailer to sell the items “tax free.”

To qualify for the deduction, clothing or shoes must be priced at less than $100 per unit, however, accessories and special clothing or footwear primarily designed for athletic activity or protective use and not normally worn beyond the scope of the athletic activity or protective use remain taxable.

School supplies for use in standard, general-education classrooms must be under $30 per unit. The law specifically lists notebooks, paper, writing instruments, crayons, art supplies, rulers, book bags, backpacks, handheld calculators, maps and globes as deductible during the tax holiday.

The price limit for desktop, laptop or notebook computers is $1,000, and for related computer hardware such as a monitor, speaker or set of speakers, printer, keyboard, microphone or mouse the limit is no more than $500.

Tablet computers are non taxable, but e-readers that do not contain computing functions such as word processing, spreadsheets, etc. are taxable.

The law specifically excludes watches, radios, compact disc players, headphones, sporting equipment, portable desktop telephones, copiers, office equipment, furniture or fixtures. The law does not consider such items to be school supplies that students normally use in a standard classroom.

Sales of those items are taxable during the three-day period.

There are items specifically excluded by statute in all categories. Those items are always taxable.

An all-inclusive list of both taxable and non taxable items can be found at www.tax.newmexico.gov.